


Resolution

by Nintendraw



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Fiction, General, Literature, Romance, Short Stories, prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2019-10-14 11:24:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17507687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nintendraw/pseuds/Nintendraw
Summary: After the events of Bravely Default, Ringabel, Edea, Tiz, and Agnès returned to the third world to live out their lives with all of their family. Ringabel and Edea returned to the Duchy of Eternia, where the former attempted to resume his original life in a new place...





	Resolution

Cold gray light seeped in through the window of my room on the 47th floor of the Eternian Central Command. I rose easily an hour after dawn and gazed out the arched glass window, inattentively observing the clouds as my mind continued to wake. Such peace this snowy land now beheld! It was hard to believe that merely six months ago, we four Warriors of Light had rescued the world from a destruction that so many of this realm had sought to avoid. Beyond a single reunion last week, we hardly saw each other anymore. Tiz had returned to Caldisla to serve as their new captain of the guard while Agnès was ensconced at the Temple of Wind to train the next generation of vestals. Edea, of course, had invited me back to Eternia with her, and curious as to what my life would have been like had I not lost my memory—how I might have lived together with her—I had accepted. The grand marshal had not had time to clear a room for me when I had first arrived with my angel at my side, but I hadn’t bothered to finish the job for him. Unsurprising, then, that this place, so full of Lee mementos, should remind me of her…

Lost in reflection, I did not glance up again until I saw another cloud float by, bold and light, with a puff in back that remarkably resembled that familiar ribbon. Ah, Edea… It was she that I had joined the company for, she who had helped to restore my proper sense of self. No matter how many times she had scolded me before—many of those times not verbally—I had always known that she was my one, no matter how many other lovely ladies we encountered around Luxendarc. And yet… If only fate had not reminded me how unattainable she was—!

Again, the vivid nightmare! The harbinger manifest again before my eyes, _her_ entrails speared across its ghastly claws, laughing, _laughing_ , while I did nothing but stand by—!

I shuddered and tore my gaze away.

In a sun-scorned corner of the room stood the set of dark, demonic armor that had of late become my identity. I strode over to it now, brushing my fingers across its polished surface. Odd that a plate so recently worn by another could feel so familiar in so short a time. Though I would never feel as comfortable in that garb as he, it was nevertheless like an extension of me, a long-lost friend of sorts. Yet even clad in Alternis’s armor, I still did not feel entirely at ease. It was not a fault of Edea’s family; they had all been wonderfully accommodating from the start. I knew this land, and yet I didn’t; I belonged here, and yet I didn’t. Would I ever again feel truly at home? Perhaps this was my atonement for my original sin, my failure to halt the Harrowing as my Lord Marshal had asked—to resume my original role as the faceless protector of the Duchy of Eternia, ever alone in the darkness.

I had told Edea that we would train together today on the hills near Everlast Tower, pit our separate fighting styles against each other, after the morning meal. My heart raced at the thought of its own accord; I suppressed it with difficulty. I had not released the Alternis of this world from his suffering only to wallow in it myself. Though I can love no other so long as Edea lives, she deserves someone better than me. Someone from her world who had the strength to protect her as I had not. For both our sakes, I could not let myself come nearer to her heart.

Before long, I was armored and alone in the kitchen, sated and waiting for Edea to arrive. Had I waited to dine with her, she would inevitably have asked too many questions for me to answer. Six months was not quite enough time to come to terms with all that I was and would hereafter be—and if I had not accepted it, how could I convince the marshal’s daughter to do the same? When she finally arrived and brightly invited me to dine with her, I politely declined, citing my prior meal as the reason. She shot me an odd, forlorn look, but allowed me no inquiry, instead disappearing promptly into the dining hall, her own armor clinking softly in her wake. I sighed and leaned back against the castle wall, folding my arms. Though I knew the exact state of her mind—empathized with it, even—there was no place for intimacy in the role I had reassumed.

She emerged happier than she had entered, and I offered her my elbow to hold during the walk to Eastmoor. Halfway there, her elbow slipped so that we were holding hands instead. Behind my helm, I flushed red, but let her be for some time. Pulling away, however, was impossible, for she merely gripped my hand tighter, ignoring any discomfort that must come from pressing her hand so tightly against my jagged gauntlets.

Finally, we arrived at the eastern moors. At this hour, Everlast Tower always seemed suffused with divine light. I realized with a start that Edea glowed in the same way. How very fitting for one I had named my angel… But I hadn’t come here to admire her, nor she to be admired. We had come to wage minor war on each other.

“So. Are you ready to lose again, Edea?” I asked in a voice made monotone by steel.

The girl started and whirled on me, eyes flashing. “No way!” she declared. In a flash, she had unsheathed her sword. “You won’t get your way so easily this time! I’m taking you down once and for all!”

Behind my helmet, I smiled, unsheathing my own dark blade in more leisurely fashion. “Overconfidence will be your downfall, Lady Templar,” I noted, crossing sword and shield before me and dropping into a ready stance.

“I thought I told you not to call me that!” she protested vehemently. “We are too close friends to stand on title! Mrgrgr! I’m going to smack you just for that; you’ll see!”

“Heh. You may try.”

No more words. We threw ourselves at each other. I slashed at Edea’s right flank; she retaliated with a shield strike in the chest. Unbalanced, I stumbled back. Her blade flashed silver; I parried, barely. Too little! I spun around her, ducked under the thrusting blade I knew would come, disoriented her with a roundhouse kick to the back. Edea fell easily under the force of my blow, but bounded right back up. “Mrgrgr! You dirty old—!” She didn’t finish her sentence, cut instead at my face. _How dare she—?!_ Though helmed, I wasn’t impervious. She knew better than to strike there! “Not a chance, girl!” I ducked away and slammed my sword against hers, hard enough to make sparks fly. How fitting that her silver blade be stopped by my blood-red one, that we should war like this near the temple where all this began. Black and white…

My moment’s distraction cost me. I didn’t see the savage swipe she sent next until almost too late. I swore, caught it on the wrong side of my arm. Blood spurted. I swore again. This child’s play has gone too long! I could feel the fury building, let it suffuse me. Ranking superior or not, she needed to learn her place on the battlefield! Adrenaline coursed through my veins. I roared—a chilling, guttural sound—and swung again, harder. Edea barely remained upright to parry. I pressed my advantage, raining blows down on her, bruising her, sending her very nearly to the edge. As I reared back for a final strike, she struck back, desperately. The force of her blow sent me back several paces, served only to increase my rage. I summoned my energy, released it. “Dark—!”

Edea was too smart to let me finish. She tackled me to the ground before I could attack. Every attack she sent me invigorated me, infuriated me, even more. I bucked upwards, flung her off with impossible speed, snatched up my sword again the moment I regained my feet. Yet something in the back of my head, something that remembered my old, destructive tussles, urged me to end this scrap quickly. _You could destroy her if you keep up like this!_

So when she rushed at me again, I did not parry solely with my blade. As she neared, I tensed and cocked my head back, preparing. _Here she comes!_ I rammed my blade at hers, sent it wide, rammed my iron head into hers, hard enough to send her sprawling. I gave her no opportunity to rise, stomped lightly but firmly upon her chest, angled my crimson blade at her throat.

For too many heartbeats, we started daggers at each other. Neither moved, neither spoke, neither breathed. Neither cared to admit how hard we'd fought, how exhausted we were. Blood dripped from the wound she'd dealt me, staining the dirtied snow beneath our feet. Finally, Edea averted her gaze, closing her eyes in defeat. I had won, as I'd known I would. But she had driven me harder this time than anyone before.

She reached out for me, and I helped her up with a mailed hand.

After the training, we found ourselves ambling homeward, side by side upon the cliffs adjacent Everlast Tower, Edea and I. “That was some fight you put up, Ringa—Alternis,” Edea commented. Her moment’s hesitation didn't escape me. I couldn’t blame her. She had first gotten to know me as that incorrigible, amnesiac womanizer, Ringabel, and I had fought at her side countless times as such. Events like those we had endured together were not so easily forgotten. And yet, I had no desire to keep living a lie, however sweet. Past and present needed to be reconciled, even for those who had known me in the interim… Or so I had told myself.

“How many times does that make that I’ve lost to you?” she continued, abashedly.

“Four times.” I gave a small, invisible smile; then, realizing that she couldn’t see it, added, “But the third time was more difficult than the second, and this more difficult than them all. You are improving, Edea, but you forget that I have two experiences to draw from, not just one.”

My voice echoed metallically in both our ears. Edea winced to hear it, and I was struck with a pang of regret. This, however, I fiercely brushed aside. I had no right to love her again as I did now. The girl deserved someone better than me. Someone of her world, of nobler stock, who thrived on love rather than pretended at it, who had tried to understand her ideals before attempting forceful conversion.

Someone who had not merely left her to perish after swearing his blade to the defense of her and hers.

I’d had many reasons for readopting the name I had lost when I’d lost my Edea. Chief among these was guilt and a form of self-loathing. For all my armor and skill with a blade, I was still a coward who had not acted when it mattered most. Did one such as me deserve a second chance at love?

“Four times.” She gave a long, drawn-out sigh and flopped back on the barren earth to stare up at me. “I don’t care how much more experience with the sword you have than me; that’s pathetic! We both trained under Eternia’s _heroes_ , for crying out loud! How is it that you win every time?! It’s not fair!” Her voice had risen to a comical pitch, and the hard dirt beneath her right foot was stomped in.

“Perhaps you were fighting for fighting’s sake alone," I mused. "Not to defend something you hold dear.” Settling down next to her, I gazed abstractedly at the old Temple of Earth. “Besides, you know I’m a poor hand at holding back, even in a skirmish.”

Edea sat up then, staring at me oddly. I would have ignored her for a moment longer, if not for her words and exasperated sigh. “You’re one to talk,” she grumbled. A pause. “There you go again, _Alternis_. There is no true war. At least, not anymore. So who are you fighting to defend? Me?”

My heart skipped a beat. I did not relish the way she enunciated my name. I refused to turn around. “What makes you think that?” I asked. “I speak only of the Lord Marshal, and of Eternia at large.”

“ _Liar_.” A clank. Edea had planted her hands on her hips and was now most likely glaring at me. Still, I did not turn to regard her, and the gesture seemed only to intensify her ire. “After all we’ve been through together, you’re still pulling _that_ old fealty card? Even though it’s just as applicable to me as to my father? When are you going to just give up and admit that it's me you’re fighting for?”

Another stab of guilt. For a moment, I dared not speak, for not even this helmet would conceal my shaking voice if I opened my mouth then. When the sentiment had passed, I replied as blandly as possible, “How were my words a lie? There is much I owe your father, after all. Had it not been for him, I would probably have perished in Florem’s slums years ago. He saved me, showed me a way out of hate, and for that, I would gladly give my life in his service.”

“Stop it.” Edea’s voice was shaking. “Just stop it!”

I had not expected this turn of events at all. Stunned, I finally turned around to see my lovely angel sitting right beside me, tears staining her plate, hands clenched into fists. When she jerked her head back up, it was with such ferocity that I recoiled, as if to evade a blow. “When are you going to give up this sham, Ringabel?!” she demanded. “You can lie all you want to, but why won’t you admit the truth when it actually matters and save yourself the pain?”

“I…” I knew not what to say. Her use of my old name, the name I had assumed while searching for myself, shored up any number of mistakes that I had hoped to forget. How had I been capable of such gross and unnatural promiscuity when all along, my deepest of hearts had ever been hers? I couldn’t tell her what I suspected she wanted me to because it was not precisely true. I had done too much to and around her, disregarded and hurt her too much in every world to even dream of laying claim to her heart once more. Despite all that, I had fallen for her not once, but twice. My reasons for remaining here with her in Eternia were too complex to be explained by any simple passion. She deserved someone better than me, that much is true, but that did not relieve me of my sense of obligation for this realm whose leader had saved me from a worse fate. At last, torn inside, I mumbled, “Don’t say that. ‘Ringabel’ was only a very wild figment of my imagination. That’s not who I truly am.”

A sobering fact to admit aloud. I paused in brooding thought. How would I be remembered when I had passed from this world? What did Edea call me when I wasn’t around?

“But you’re not just Alternis either.”

When I neglected to reply, Edea persisted. “Alternis this, Alternis that! Are you really trying so hard to forget everything we’ve done together?” She was openly crying now; I was startled to confirm it with my own eyes “You won’t even take that stupid helmet off in public anymore! Just how badly do you want to regress? Answer me!”

Her anger was contagious. I wanted to respond in kind. Yet before I could tell her precisely why I wanted to avoid strengthening my bonds with her, she preempted me, burying her face in my batwing pauldrons, still in tears. “I just don’t understand why you’re trying so hard to be just like him,” she sniffled. “You and he just aren’t the same…”

Once upon a time, I would have restored her smile—or even her frown—with any number of witty or inflammatory comments. Now, however, words failed me. How had I been so eloquent before? Awkwardly, I turned my torso towards her, hugging her head and shoulders, and she scooted forwards into my armored embrace, still crying. “It’s not that I don’t treasure you as well, Edea,” I managed. “I love that we could travel together for so long, that I could get to know you as I do now. But you simply are not mine to love. Even as members of the Council, you are still beyond my reach. No, my place is here, defending the duchy.”

“You’re still not telling me everything,” came the muffled reply. I could not parry, not without treading into dangerous waters.

Silence. Then she looked up. “What if I told you… that I didn’t care?”

Well. I hadn’t expected this response at all. I tilted my head at her. “What?”

“You heard me. What if I told you that I didn’t care about any of the reasons you think you have for staying away from me?”

“Don’t be so quick to assume. I’ve done much to be so undeserving.” Was she testing me? Still, I doubted that she would have made such a claim if she knew why I kept my distance. Yet when I told her this, her only answer was, “Try me.”

I decided to humor her. “Pushing every button you have, particularly with women.”

“Don’t care.”

“Crippling the ship you named.”

“Don’t care.”

“Sending you into that trap with DeRosa.”

“Don’t care.”

“Hitting on Konoe Kikyo.”

“Don’t care.”

“Failing to save you from Ouroboros once before.”

Edea paused at that and stared at me incredulously, long enough to make me uneasy. “That… Is that the reason why you refuse to let yourself get close to me?” she asked. “Because you don’t want to see me hurt as your Edea was?”

“That’s… not all of it though.” Though my reasons sounded off even to my own ears, I forced myself to voice them. Edea needed to understand that she should ignore my affections and focus her attention elsewhere. No matter how much it might hurt us both. “Granted, that is the crux of the matter. How can a coward who did nothing to keep their beloved from perishing before their very eyes deserve to love again? I've seen and done too much for things to be so simple. Even as children, you were always dear to me. And yet, when the Lord Marshal gave the order to slay anyone who threatened the duchy’s ideals… I would’ve betrayed someone I loved no matter how I received that command. Even now, I don’t know what I should feel around you. I know you, and yet I don’t. If council standing was the only thing between us, you would still be beyond my reach, but we are also literally worlds apart. Time paradoxes aside, someone else out there loves you, and you deserve a chance to discover that someone for yourself.” I bowed my head, staring at the dirt, at the tower base, at anything but her. “Not a bullheaded, amnesiac cassanova like me,” I finished. I had mulled over these thoughts for a while, so why did they wound even worse when said aloud?

“You sweet, stupid man.”

That made three times today that I had failed to accurately predict a woman’s reactions—and all in the same hour, no less. Had I always been this inept around members of the opposite sex? Slowly, I returned my gaze to her, startled to note the sad smile that shone through glistening tears. “Not so long ago,” she began, “I would not have thought you capable of taking responsibility for so many others. You came to me as Ringabel, as a handsome and irrepressible lech who always managed to push both the right and wrong buttons with me. I know not when or why I began to love you, but you are not the stone-faced Alternis I knew, nor are you as frivolous as the Ringabel I knew. You’re smart, funny, loyal, and strong, and what’s more—I actually have a face to associate with my feelings. _Your_ face.” She paused and averted her gaze, her hand over her heart. “Ever since his appointment to the Council of Six, Alternis never removed his helmet once that I can remember, not even for me,” she added softly. “Yet in searching for yourself, you gave us a face worth caring for. Alternis was my friend, but Ringabel is someone I can love.” She lifted her head again, glaring at me through tearful eyes. “Is that really who you want to become, Ringabel?” she asked, her voice breaking. “Ever since you came back to Eternia with me, I haven’t seen your face once. You’re even using his name again! Do you want so much to forget our deeds together? Forget _me_?”

I couldn’t believe my ears. Had she just admitted that she loved me? Truly? When I didn’t reply, after a long moment, Edea reached out and placed her hands on the cheeks of my dark helmet. “Take away this mask, Ringabel,” she ordered, voice trembling. “It matters not to me if you decide to keep addressing yourself as him, honestly. I love all of you, but I can’t love a suit of armor, even if I know in my mind that the man who wears it is the one who stole my heart. I think even your Edea would agree.”

I was too focused on her previous words to laugh at her poor joke. Had Edea meant her every word? My confidence had been badly shaken when she had denied me that first dinner in the third Florem, and never had she mentioned any of this during all our travels. Uneasily, I placed my own gauntleted hand on her cheek, dropping it to her cheek when she flinched. “Do you really think so…?”

“I don’t just think so. I know so.” She flashed a grin at me. “After all, she is me, and I am her, right? Wouldn’t it put her soul just as much at ease if you loved me instead?”

I peeked at her through my visor. Was she serious? I wanted to believe she was. Edea was not the sort to lie, but there was still one matter that bothered me. “Then when you said that you didn't reject just anyone, did you mean…?”

“Oh… That…” Edea fidgeted with her hair for a moment, as if in thought. “I hadn't rejected you because I didn't like you, Ringabel, if that's what you're worried about. Tiz had sent me into the hold to wake you up before, and I heard you muttering things that you should have had no right to know. Things that Alternis had known. And then, when I saw you fighting with his asterisk… It was as if watching a scene from the past. You move just like he in battle; you look just like he might have without his armor. You two even stand the same way. And then when your next headache hit in the Water Temple… I knew. Or at least, I could almost guess.” She turned towards me with a concerned gaze. “I hadn't rejected you because I wanted nothing to do with you,” she confided. “I did it because I knew that you needed to sort yourself out first before complicating matters with me.”

My heart swelled at her words. So she truly _did_ love me! All those days of doubt had been for glorious naught! It wasn't long before I felt content enough to attempt a joke. “You have me now, my lady,” I assured her. “All of me. Just as you had me before. But just how I am to keep your pretty head safe from axes without a helmet to split them on?” I added, unable to suppress a grin.

Her laughter pealed in my ears like wondrous bells of redemption. “No one’s going to dare taking an axe to my head with you around to protect me, Ringabel.”

Despite the fact that my identity was born of two names rather than one, I felt a moment’s irritation at the fact that she preferred my contrived name over the one of my birth. “Alternis,” I urged her, without force. “I would be your stalwart shield rather than your obnoxious lech.” Even if her revelations had just lifted a huge weight off my chest, part of me still felt beholden to the name I had been raised with and hatched my morals with, rather than the horrible pun I had saddled myself with during our recent escapades.

“Ringabel,” she insisted, ruining the glare she sent me with a wide grin. “I would have you be the smart, handsome, and protective brother, friend, and husband who helped me save the world five times over. Obnoxiousness is just a bonus.”

I laughed openly at her last comment, but her words restored me better than any elixir. Truly, Edea knew exactly what to say to put me at ease and make all my troubles disappear. “Very well, my lady,” I told her, allowing my suave accent to return in full. “Ringabel it is, if you so wish, though I would ask that you not address me as such before the Council. I've got a reputation to keep, after all.”

“A price I'm willing to pay, if it means being able to kiss that handsome face of yours and not that soulless helmet.” Ignoring the start I gave at the last, she leaned back as I placed my hands on the sides of my helmet, relishing the warmth left by her hands there mere seconds ago. When I lifted only the faceplate to regard her with smirking eyes, she laughed and playfully punched my chestplate. “All of it, silly,” she ordered. “That means your bevor, too.”

My subsequent grin deformed the mask I wore. “As you wish, my dear. Anything for you. ” Lowering the faceplate again, I braced my hands and lifted the entire helmet off. My pompadour fell over my eyes in a disheveled mess, but I ignored that for a moment, dropping the bevor to my mailed neck and shoulders. Shooting Edea a coquettish grin, I ran my fingers through my unkempt ‘do to restore it to as much of its old glory as possible. “Shall we return to Central Command then, my angel?” I asked.

She smirked at me. “For someone who created himself a whole new identity, you’re pretty bad at imitating it yourself. You’re supposed to say, ‘Can we not remain here under this divine sky, my angel? Your father’s council wouldn’t miss us if we stayed here a little longer.’”

“Hey. That’s my line.” For a young lady, her imitation of me was surprisingly spot-on. I didn’t know whether to be indignant or proud. It didn't matter, though, for in a heartbeat, she had tackled me to the ground. Caught off-guard, I fell back hard and laughed. “I surrender!” I protested good-naturedly, raising my hands in mock defeat. “What would the other women think of me if they saw me defeated like this?”

“Who cares what they think?” Edea’s voice was a purr in my ears. “You don’t belong just to Eternia anymore—you belong to me, and I to you. Stay by my side, Ringabel. Let’s keep protecting each other’s backs—always.”

I sighed and stroked her hair. At long last, I finally felt complete. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Edea.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm relatively unused to first-person; hopefully it doesn't seem too awkward.
> 
> This blasted oneshot ended up WAYYYY too long, given that I'd only envisioned the parts where Edea winces at hearing Ringabel's masked voice and one other paragraph elsewhere. Though this could occur in any world, I'd imagined this for the third world since everyone was given the chance to replace their deceased selves there.
> 
> I really hope I did justice to the characters in their dialogue. Edea, I think, is easier to write than Ringabel here, mainly because I don't think in that particular vein much at all. Both are still lovely characters.
> 
> For reference, this is a [bevor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevor).


End file.
